World Environment Day 2024
Join the #GenerationRestoration action in Bangkok on 5 June!
The World Environment Day is celebrated annually on 5 June to put a spotlight on environmental challenges of our time. In 2024 the World Environment Day “Reviving lands for a brighter future” focuses on land restoration, stopping desertification and building drought resilience and it is hosted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Asia and the Pacific is exceptionally rich in biodiversity with rich land and water ecosystems. Land-use changes and land degradation caused by factors such as extensive agriculture, deforestation and unmanaged urbanization and sprawl, are reducing the biodiversity of many land ecosystems. Healthy soils store massive amounts of carbon, which, if released, would cause a huge spike to planetary warming. Changes in water courses, pollution and unsustainable consumption of water resources are causing water related stress and reduced aquatic biodiversity. Globally the equivalent of one football pitch of soil is eroded every 5 seconds. Yet, it takes 1,000 years to generate 3 centimetres of topsoil.
The Asia and the Pacific region, home to two-thirds of the world’s population, is facing increasing impacts of water stress and land degradation that are caused among other reasons by population growth, rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, and a changing climate that is accelerating droughts.3 The majority of people living in Asia and the Pacific live in cities and the increasing urbanisation is expected to increase the impacts of water stress and urban droughts. Cities produce more than half of global waste and at least 60 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, which results in polluting waterways and further reducing available freshwater.
Through the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030), solutions are scaling for the protection and revival of ecosystems all around the world, including in Asia and the Pacific to increase drought and climate resilience and reduce land degradation. By restoring land and productive systems, humanity can secure a nature-positive, net-zero future and safeguarding a healthy planet for all.
On 5 June 2024, the World Environment Day, UNEP and ESCAP bring together the crucial partners and stakeholders in Asia and the Pacific to discuss the priority areas on land restoration, desertification and drought resilience in the region. The event will discuss solutions applicable for the region, such as circular water resource use, sustainable food production and drought resilient urban development.
Registration: https://indico.un.org/event/1011718/
Zoom link for online participation: https://zoom.us/j/92551030591 (passcode: WED@5June)
